No Ice Cream Maker~Strawberry Ice Cream

Do you want an easy and delicious summer treat? Try this homemade strawberry ice cream, NO ice cream maker required. All you need is a few ingredients: milk, honey, sugar, vanilla and of course fresh strawberries.



I found this recipe somewhere on the internet. I apologize that I have no idea where I got it from but I am glad I found it.

What you need & What you do:

2 cups of fresh strawberries, wash them, cut them in half, put them in a large freezer ziploc bag and put a few tablespoons of sugar in the bag. Shake them around to coat them with the sugar then put them in the freezer.

Once they are frozen...

Put 2 cups of your strawberries in a blender with 1 cup of whole milk, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and 2 tblsp of honey. Blend until smooth, add more milk if needed. It will make a very thick, soft serve ice cream consistency. So good!

Banana Cookies

My sister made these and took the picture. I have not tried one yet but she and my brother-in-law say they are wonderful! She says they are not like at typical cookie and almost have a 'muffin like' consistency. I have a few bananas in the kitchen right now. I am thinking I might give them a try.



What you need:

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup of mashed bananas (about 2 ½ large bananas)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 cups of flour
* I would do one cup of regular flour and one cup of wheat flour*
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground mace or nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 cup of pecans (walnuts and chocolate chips would be good too)

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

In a bowl, mix the mashed bananas and baking soda. Let sit for 2 minutes. The baking soda will react with the acid in the bananas which in turn will give the cookies their lift and rise.

Mix the banana mixture into the butter mixture. Mix together the flour, salt, and spices and sift into the butter and banana mixture and mix until just combined.

Fold into the batter the pecans or chocolate chips if using. Drop in dollops onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

Makes about 30 cookies.

(She got the recipe from www.simplyrecipes.com)

Enjoy!

Sharing this on Mommy's Kitchen Potluck Sunday.

Peachy Keen Smoothies

These are so good! A yummy, frosty, and cool summer treat. My son has been enjoying these smoothies for breakfast all summer. I found the recipe in the summer issue of Food Network Magazine.

Peachy Keen Smoothies

What you need:

2 ripe peaches pitted and cut into chunks (the recipe says you can leave the skins on but I prefer to take off the skin. If you want an easy way to do this check out my peach cobbler recipe post)

1 cup of 2% or 4% cottage cheese

1/2 cup of milk

3-4 tablespoons of honey

2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

pinch of salt

pinch of nutmeg (sprinkle nutmeg on the top too)

2 cups of ice

*puree all ingredients in a blender until smooth and sprinkle extra nutmeg on top.

I'm linking up to Mommy's Kitchen Potluck.



Enjoy!

What Was Your 4th Of July Dessert?

I have seen SO MANY yummy posts this past week, all about delicious 4th of July Desserts! Summer is my favorite season. Yes I realize it is hot and humid but it is still my favorite. Any season which allows me to wear flip flops 7 days a week is a winner in my book. I also celebrate my birthday on the 10th of this month, so being a summer baby might have something to do with my love of summer as well.

Our 4th of July Dessert was Peach Cobbler. My Mom has made this recipe many times, she got it from one of her Southern Living Magazines. Here is the recipe, as written in Southern Living:

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
4 cups fresh peach slices
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Ground cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)

Preparation

**How to peel your peaches:

Boil one large pot of water. Add your peaches to the pot and boil them for 3-5 minutes. Immediatley place them in a bowl of ice water and let them sit until they are cool enough to handle. The skins will come right off.



Next slice your peaches like so:




Melt butter in a 13- x 9-inch baking dish.

Combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt; add milk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter over butter (do not stir).

Bring remaining 1 cup sugar, peach slices, and lemon juice to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly; pour over batter (do not stir). Sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired.

Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve cobbler warm or cool.

**We enjoyed our cobbler warm with vanilla icecream.




What was your 4th of July Dessert? I think those summer desserts can be enjoyed all season.



Link Up and Share Your Dessert Recipes!

Blueberry Pound Cake For The 4th

This recipe is soooooooooooooooo....good! Actually it is to die for. I was just googling around one day searching for a good pound cake recipe when I happened upon it, I found it on allrecipes.com. I had blueberries in my fridge from my bushes and needed to use them, this was the perfect solution.

What you Need:



2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup white sugar
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

What you do:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees

Mix together your 2 3/4 cup of flour, salt, and baking powder, then set aside.

Rinse blueberries, put in a bowl and coat them with about 1/4 of a cup of sugar (I let mine sit for about 30mins like this) then dredge them with 1/4 cup of flour.

In another bowl cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of sugar, beat your eggs in one at a time and add vanilla. Beat your flour mixture gently until mixed. Add your blueberries, I used my hands to take them out of their bowl and discared the extra flour from them.

Gently fold blueberries into batter.


Kiddo was in the kitchen helping out with this recipe.

Grease your bundt pan with 2 tablespoons of butter, or spray it with non stick spray (this is what I did) Then coat the pan with sugar.



Pour your batter in your pan and bake for 1 hour and 10mins (this is what the recipe asks for, mine only baked for an hour and it was done)

Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 mins before taking it out.
Slice and enjoy!



This was a very good recipe! Most pound cakes need a glaze but this one DID NOT. The sugar really made the outside crispy and the inside was nice and moist.

I'm linking up to Mommy's Kitchen Potluck Sunday.



Head on over and check out what everyone else is bringing to the potluck!

Popsicles: The Insiders View

I am constantly on the look out for tasty, healthy and easy treats to enjoy during the summer months. Popsicles would seem like a logical solution but if you've ever cruised the freezer isle and actually read the labels you know that isn't always so. All of these colorful and cold treats 'look' so good for you. They have fruit in them, how could they be bad?

Well, lets take a moment and read some labels. You can decide for yourself which one you would rather buy.



*This comes from Edys.com. The fruit bars come in many different flavors, pineapple, coconut, orange cream, grape and many more.*

Ingredients: water, sugar, pineapple, citric acid, modified corn starch, guar gum, carob bean gum, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), natural and artificial flavor, annatto color, Turmeric Extract Color

Nutritional facts Amount per 1 Bar
Calories
Calories from Fat 80
Total Fat
Saturated Fat
Trans Fat (g)
(g)
(g) Cholesterol (mg) Sodium (mg) Total Carbohydrates
Dietary Fiber
Sugars 19 (g)
0 (g)
18 (g)
Protein (mg)
Calcium % Does not Contain Nuts Gluten-Free Kosher



Ingredients: Water, Pear Juice (from concentrate), liquid sugar, sugar water, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, orange juice (from concentrate) watermelon juice (from concentrate), rasberry juice (from concentrate) vegetable juice for color, citric acid, malic acid, guar gum, cherry juice (from concentrate), natural flavor, asorbic acid, locust bean gum, annatto (for color), turmeric (for color)

Calories 30
Sodium 0
Carbs 8gs
Sugars 6gs
Protein 0
Vitamin C 8%



Pasteurized for purity and wholesomeness, Otter Pops are a delicious fast freeze treat. Ingredients: WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, FRUIT JUICE (CONTAINS ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: APPLE, GRAPE OR PEAR JUICE FROM CONCENTRATE), CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF THE FOLLOWING: CITRIC AND/OR FUMARIC ACID, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, SODIUM BENZOATE AND POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVES), RED 40, YELLOW 5, YELLOW 6, BLUE 1 Protein:0g

Nutritional Facts:
Calories 15
Fat 0
Sodium 0
Carbs 4g
Sugars 4g
Protein 0

There are the facts of 3 popular popsicle products, the decision is yours.

Not So Bad For You Cupcakes

I got this recipe from my Spring Kraft Food and Family, it is super easy, yummy and the cupcakes are so cute!

Mix together one package of Angel Food cake mix according to package.

Fill lined muffin tins about 2/3 full with batter

Bake on 375 for 12-15mins



Topping....

Mix one package of vanilla pudding with one small can of crushed pineapple (use the juice from the can too)

Once mixed together fold in 1 cup of coolwhip

After cupcakes have cooled spread the topping on each one and then put a fresh sliced strawberry on top of the cupcake.

These are so good and so pretty!



I'm participating in Mommy's Kitchen Potluck Sunday.